MENIFEE: COUNCIL TO RECONSIDER BUNKER ORDINANCE
CITY TO RECONSIDER BUNKER ORDINANCE

Angry residents get wish as council agrees to review decision on underground rooms

Menifee’s City Council proved this week that it isn’t above reconsidering its decisions.

Dozens upon dozens of residents filed into City Hall on Tuesday to protest previous council decisions on underground bunkers and metal storage containers that they believe infringed on their property rights.

The consternation arose after the April 16 meeting, at which council members decided not to adopt ordinances that would allow bunkers and not to relax restrictions on metal storage containers. At this week’s meeting, however, the council decided that it would reconsider both issues at an upcoming meeting.

Councilman Tom Fuhrman — who missed the previous council meeting because of a vacation — recommended the motion as the residents were preparing to speak at the meeting, some of them holding “Recall” signs face down in their laps. He said the council’s stance against two rural community-based ordinances infringed on the basic constitutional rights of a population that has become the minority in the 4-year-old city, Fuhrman said.

“Country folk are we, and we are the minority,” Fuhrman told the crowd. “Property rights are being eroded away by the government. The minority is speaking, and this council must listen.”

Fuhrman said he asked Mayor Scott Mann to address the failed ordinances before the time allotted for members of the public to speak.

“Because Councilmember Fuhrman was out of town, he wasn’t here to champion … the cause on a piece of code that he wanted,” Mann said. “He wasn’t here, so the right thing to do was to bring it back. If we can find a way to compromise on it, maybe we can compromise. You never know.”

Mann’s comments Tuesday came less than a month after he said he didn’t want Menifee to be “a pioneer of the cities of California doing a bunker ordinance.” At that same meeting, Councilman John Denver said he was against the bunkers and the metal storage containers because they don’t fit “in a growing, upscale community.”

The council had questioned the necessity of underground bunkers and raised concerns about their use in aiding drug producers and criminals who have been known to hide kidnapped children in bunkers.

Resident Bernie Jones, who has addressed city officials during numerous public meetings in an effort to get a green light to build a bunker on his property, said he appreciated the council’s willingness to reconsider the ordinance that he has been trying to push through City Hall for more than a year.

“The protection of my family is huge, and it’s my right,” Jones said. “I just need a little help and a little compassion.”

Several residents echoed Jones’ sentiment, and several others opted not to speak after realizing that the council already had decided to support their request.

The “Recall” signs that were distributed to numerous residents in the audience were never held up.

“We as citizens have rights,” resident Louis Reyes told the council. “It is the right of the people, and they need to be left alone. We need to honor … the Constitution.”

Both ordinances faced several rounds of tweaks before the Planning Commission recommended final versions for the City Council’s review in April, including relaxing restrictions to allow metal shipping containers on properties smaller than 5 acres.

Those tweaks included multiple provisions related to the aesthetics of the metal containers, Planning Commissioner Chris Thomas said as he noted residents’ right to have those structures on their property if they adhere to the proposed rules.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council was poised to approve placing a moratorium on metal shipping containers as city officials further study their impact — an action that stemmed from last month’s decision not to adopt the Planning Commission’s recommended ordinance.

The moratorium, which passed with a 5-0 vote, only prevents the use of new metal shipping containers.

“Do not take those rights away from these citizens,” Thomas said.

The bunker ordinance that died last month would have allowed residents to build detached underground storage facilities — which include doomsday bunkers and wine cellars — so long as they adhered to building code provisions.

Councilman Wallace Edgerton was quick to support Mann’s motion to reconsider both the bunker and metal shipping containers, but said he regretted that Fuhrman — who represents the city’s more rural district — could not attend the April 16 meeting to add to the discussion.

“I wish you had been here for that meeting,” Edgerton said. “I think that would have made a difference.”